


A Moment in Time

by hhertzof



Series: Another Time, Another Place [2]
Category: Doctor Who, Sarah Jane Adventures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-15
Updated: 2010-02-15
Packaged: 2017-10-07 07:28:24
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/62820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hhertzof/pseuds/hhertzof
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What was the Doctor up to during those few minutes the TARDIS was gone during <i>Rose</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Moment in Time

**Author's Note:**

> **Written for:** miladygrey for the forty_or_better ficathon.  
> **Beta:** samfeasor

The war was over and the universe had changed. Ripples spreading throughout time and space. Minor shifts and major ones. Earth history was badly affected. Too much meddling with history; too many encounters with the Daleks.

The Dalek invasion of Earth had never happened. If Susan hadn't returned to Gallifrey at the start of the war, he might not have been able to find her. Perhaps that would have been better than losing her when he pressed the switch and erased two races from history.

And then there was Sarah. He'd tracked the shifts in her timeline until he couldn't take it any more. He was thankful that she would never remember what she had lost in the process.

He had wanted to be alone after the war. Alone with his memories, his guilt and his grief. Then one day he grabbed a girl's hand and said, "Run."

They saved the day. It was what he was best at after all. But when he offered her all of time and space, she refused. As brightly as he smiled when he left, it had shaken him to the core and made him realise just how lonely he was. He punched in coordinates blindly, not caring when or where he ended up, just wanting a distraction.

The TARDIS landed with a thump. He wasn't sure where. He ignored the scanners and the sensors, and just pushed open the door, almost wishing there was something dangerous on the other side.

Earth. Autumn by the look and scent. Judging by the car and house, right about the same era he had just left. He'd landed in somebody's back garden.

Ah, well, he should at least apologise for landing in their flowerbed. He strode over to the door and was about to ring the bell when it swung open and a boy ran out, crashing into him and knocking them both over.

"Sorry, late for school." The boy stood, and offered him a hand, studying him intently.

The Doctor stood and returned the favour, noting the brown hair and inquisitive eyes. "Is your mum or dad home?" He grinned reassuringly. "Don't worry, I won't get you into trouble.

"Mum's home. Mum! There's a strange man to see you," the boy yelled into the house.

"Is there now? Shouldn't you be getting to school?" He couldn't see the boy's mother yet, but the voice sounded awfully familiar.

"Going now. 'Scuse me." The Doctor watched as the boy ran off. Good runner that one. Maybe in a few years....

"Doctor?"

The voice still niggled at his brain and he swung around to see..."Sarah Jane?!?" He gathered her up in a big bear hug, pushing all the reasons he'd had for avoiding her to the back of his mind. It was too late now. "How did you know it was me?"

"Come in and have a cup of tea and we can talk." There was something odd in her voice.

***

Sarah bustled around the kitchen putting the kettle on and finding some biscuits. Jaffa cakes. A little too sweet for her taste, but Luke loved them and the Doctor had always had a sweet tooth. She knew she was avoiding looking at him and trusted him to be patient.

But she knew the best way was to tackle the subject head on, so she finally turned and looked him straight in the eye. "I remember."

"Remember?" It took him a moment. "The Daleks...the war," he said softly.

She nodded. "They kept changing my time line. I guess after a while my brain stopped overwriting itself. I remember timelines where I lived, and ones where I died. Having a family. Falling to my death at the age of thirteen...that wasn't even the Daleks, but a more recent menace. I even married Harry in one of the timelines, if you can believe it?" She couldn't mention the year the Master had ruled the Earth, that had happened to a later incarnation and she had a new appreciation for the need to safeguard history.

The Doctor grinned back at her. "Did you kill each other? I ask this in a spirit of pure scientific curiosity, you understand."

"No, we didn't. But the marriage didn't last long." She considered what else he'd be interested in. "Josh and Nat seem to have stuck in any variation that involved me travelling with you and running into the Mandragora Helix, though the details aren't always the same. And I can't seem to get away from the Orbus Postremo as much as I'd like to." She stood to pour the tea.

"That's good. I know how important they were too you. Not the cult...your friends." He accepted his cup gratefully, dunking a jaffa cake in, and nibbling at it. "And you have a son. Husband too? Or did you divorce him, like you did Harry? Was it Harry?"

Sarah laughed. "That would have been a nightmare. No, he's a human clone, created by the Bane to perfect their plan to use Bubble Shock to take over the world. After I defeated them, he didn't have any place else to go. I'm not the best parent, but we manage."

He smiled, trying not to feel relieved. He hated feeling jealous of his companions lives after they left him or of the men or women they settled down with. Most of them had such short lives, it would have been cruel to pursue more than a casual affair, and like Sarah and Harry, he and Romana would never have lasted long, even under the best conditions. "So you're happy with the life you ended up with."

"I am. I'm doing good, and I'm starting to realise that closing myself away from the world wasn't such a good thing. I have friends now. And Luke and his friends help me with my work."

"Journalism? Or something else?" He couldn't help but be curious about that. The last time he'd seen her, she'd been slowly rebuilding her reputation, after the machinations of the Crimson Chapter had almost destroyed it.

"Freelance journalist, freelance defender of the Earth." She gave him a bright smile. "They don't exactly conflict with each other."

"I suppose not. You wouldn't want to come with me," he wheedled. "The last person I asked said no. Rose Tyler, her name was. You would have liked her. She helped me defeat an Auton invasion and save the day."

Sarah took a sip of tea to cover her reaction to Rose's name. "Did you tell her that ship of yours travels in time as well as space? You might want to give her another chance someday." She didn't want to think he'd regenerate so soon, but anything was possible.

"Maybe. She reminded me of Jo in a lot of ways. You never met Jo." He realised. "She'd gone off with that scientist bloke before we met."

"UNIT Christmas parties." Sarah grinned at him. "Benton and the Brig arrange one every year. I don't make them all, but I try to."

"Do they? I'll have to show up one of these days. UNIT always was my favourite military organisation."

Sarah bit her lip to stop from making a snide comment about Torchwood. As with Harold Saxon, that was still in his future. She noticed he'd finished his tea. "Another cup or a tour of the attic?"

"What have you got in the attic and why not the whole house?" He stared at her. "What _have_ you been up to, Sarah?"

"Well, I don't want my neighbours to see my collection of alien artifacts and small parts, do I, Doctor?" She took his hand and led him up the stairs.

***

Sarah watched, her arms held behind her back and a bright smile on her face, as the Doctor poked around the attic, muttering under his breath. She could tell he was impressed.

He admired the articles and photographs she had pinned up around the room, and when he thought she wasn't looking, tucked a few parts into his jacket. They'd come in handy sometime. When the beeping started, he jumped guiltily.

He watched as Sarah went over to a vault in the wall and opened it, revealing a starscape. "K-9. How are things going?"

"They are going perfectly, mistress. My work here should be done in another hundred years."

"K-9." The Doctor bounded over. "What are you up to?"

"Stabilising a black hole, master."

"Good doggie." Even K-9 was saving the universe. He chose his companions well.

"Yes, master. It is going quite well. I must go now."

"Keep up the good work, K-9." The Doctor grinned. "I'd give you a scratch behind the ears if I could."

"Understood." The dog flew off to return to work and Sarah closed the vault.

"You've got a dimensional rift in your attic. Why am I not surprised?"

"We've known each other too long, Doctor." She hugged him briefly, slipping two or three objects out of his pocket. He might be a pack rat, but she didn't have to enable him.

He didn't even notice. She was warm and lovely and he just wanted to go on holding her for a while.

When he didn't let go, Sarah reached up and kissed him on the lips. She'd been resisting the urge ever since he walked in the door. Having got past the abandonment issues, she wasn't adverse to a one ~~night~~ day stand, if he wasn't.

She'd considered making a pass at the Doctor at Deffrey Vale, but he looked young enough to be her son, and she'd still been caught up in the emotions that his reappearance in her life had reawakened. This Doctor seemed closer to her age. He _was_ closer to her age...if you wanted to get technical, but there were still at least 700 years between them.

The Doctor froze. Sarah was kissing him. This wasn't exactly new. Travelling with humans, he'd almost got used to their impulse to have sex at the oddest time. He'd even given in to a few passes, if he'd been certain that the companion in question understood that it was temporary and casual. Sarah had been one of the few, but he hadn't expected her to pick up where they left off. It had been different when they'd travelled together during the war. He knew human instincts were to mate during times of danger, both as a stress relief, and to continue the species, but there was no danger now.

Still, no matter how messy human sex (or sex with humans) was, it was also quite pleasurable and he didn't necessarily object to where this was going. He did object to floors and walls, though. "Bedroom," he murmured, when she finally broke the kiss. How humans could hold a kiss for that long without a respiratory bypass system was beyond him.

She grinned, and almost dragged him down the stairs. He spared a brief wistful thought for the low libidos of his own people, but followed willingly enough.

***

Her bedroom reminded him of her room in the TARDIS...piles of books and paper, old-fashioned wood furniture, a few photos. He was distracted from his reverie when she came up behind him and pulled off his jacket, throwing it on a chair. "Oi!"

Sarah was accustomed to his "low libido". She also knew from personal experience that once he got going, he'd be just as...energetic as any human male. The trick was getting him to that point.

She worked her hands up under his jumper, enjoying the feel of cool skin. Her fingers crept around his torso, easing the jumper off as she fondled him.

He grinned even though he knew she couldn't see it. That was one nice thing about humans – they were so toasty. Better than a hot water bottle on a cold night. He leaned back into her arms, raising his own so that she could pull the jumper off. Once she'd dropped it on top of his jacket he turned and reached for her. "This is getting a bit uneven, wouldn't you say?" He kissed her absently on the top of her head before drawing her down beside him on the bed.

Sarah was wearing several layered shirts and he took his own sweet time removing them, one at a time, knowing he was torturing her with each caress of her skin through the thin fabric. Finally he slipped the last one off, revealing a surprisingly frilly lace bra.

She led his hands to the hooks on the back and let him undo it, sliding it off her arms and letting it drop on the floor. Reaching up she traced the lines of his face. He looked not old, but tired, like he had seen too much. Sarah brushed her lips lightly against his, wishing she could take some of his burdens away.

Her reverie was broken when he started tickling her. "Hey, no fair." She caught at his arms trying to stop him, but to no avail. Instead they rolled over ending up with him on top of her.

He leaned on his forearms, so she wouldn't have to support his weight. She was such a tiny thing, even now. "There's the smile I remember."

She mock punched him in the shoulder. "You're obnoxious. I don't know why I bother."

"I'm fantastic." He grinned at her again.

"You're egotistical." And fantastic. But she didn't feel the need to tell him that.

"Would a kiss make it better?" He kissed her nose, each earlobe in turn, and then each eyelid, before capturing her mouth in a deep passionate kiss. She tasted good, salt and spice, alien and exotic. He'd always had a taste for the exotic.

The endorphins must be kicking in, Sarah thought as she kissed him back. She'd never quite figured out the trigger that caused him to shift from teasing to passion, but she always knew when it happened. Mostly because he suddenly turned from a eccentric alien to a randy male.

The Doctor ran his fingers down her chest, rubbing at her nipples and causing her to moan. Bending down, he licked at one of her breasts, teasing and sucking.

A soft whimper escaped Sarah's lips and she found herself pressing and writhing against him. When he switched breasts, carefully cupping the other in the palm of his hand, she gasped.

She caught at his shoulders, running soft warm hands down his chest, feeling his breathing quicken at her caress. He let go of her breast for a moment and looked up at her. Sarah grinned impishly at him, daring him to make the next move.

He reached down and dexterously undid her jeans with one hand, shoving them down to her knees, and then easing his free hand inside her knickers. His thumb found her clit and started to rub roughly, causing her to moan with pleasure. She was already damp, and the finger that he eased inside her was soon joined by another. His tongue slid down her breastbone, to tease around her belly button, his fingers tracing a parallel path down her abdomen, before catching at the fabric of her knickers to pull them down.

The Doctor stared at his own hand for a moment, watching his fingers working and her body jerking in rhythm, before unfastening the button of his jeans with his free hand. He tugged his boxers over his semi-hard cock and down, before reaching over and grabbing one of her hands to wrap around it. Her hand was small and hot and she knew just what he needed.

Sarah could feel him hardening beneath her fingers. She tried to focus on the feel of him and not what his fingers were doing to her. It didn't work. His long fingers seemed to know precisely where to stroke her and she pressed against his hand wanting more and more and..."Oh, Doctor."

He took that as an invitation. Pushing her hand away almost roughly, he shifted himself into position and thrust deep inside her, causing another moan of pleasure. She was hot and slick and tight around him and he couldn't think of anything that could possibly feel better. He started moving slowly, drawing himself all the way out then thrusting deep again and again.

Her hips adjusted to his rhythm, matching it, urging him on. She reached up, realised he had no curls to tangle her fingers in, and caught at his ears instead. Realising what she'd done, she moved them down to tug at his shoulders.

The Doctor glared at her, but made no sound but the grunts of exertion as his thrusts grew harder and faster.

Sarah made enough noise for the both of them, as her whimpers and moans became louder and more frenetic. She clutched at him tightly and screamed as she came, lost in pleasure.

It was enough to make the Doctor's rhythm stutter, a few more quick thrusts and he gave a gasp and collapsed on top of her, panting and shuddering as he came.

***

After a few minutes he rolled off of her, exhausted and spent, being careful to avoid the wet spot. Sex was so messy, he could understand why his own people had given it up, but on the flip side, he could understand the human obsession with it. Sarah had dozed off for a moment, and he absently stroked the hair out of her eyes, while he waited for his hearts to start beating normally again.

She stirred and grinned at him, watching him grin back lazily. "No regrets?"

"None whatsoever. I think I know now why you humans consider this a stress reliever." He brushed a finger down her cheek. "I'm going to take a shower."

"You do that." The Doctor paused as he slipped out of bed. "I don't suppose you'd come with me?"

"To the shower?"

"To travel. See the universe. We made a fantastic pair."

"I'm past that now, Doctor. I have a life here...and a son. And you are going to go right back to Rose and give her a second chance. The two of you will be fantastic, too." She sat up, and smiled at him, trying not to guess how soon he would regenerate.

"Move on with my life? Is that it?" The Doctor looked at her. "And how would you know about Rose?"

"I know you, Doctor. You need someone keeping an eye on you, and it can't be me anymore."

He continued to study her. "You're sure you're doing all right."

"Doing what you taught me. Saving the world from the forces of evil. But just because you're going doesn't mean you have to be a stranger." She took his hand in hers. "We're still best friends, I hope. And I'd like you to meet Luke and his friends some time."

He eased his hand out of hers. "Of course, we're still best friends, Sarah. Time could never change that." He grinned at her as he headed towards the shower.

***

After his shower, the Doctor left Sarah to shower, and headed down where he put on the tea kettle. When she came down, they'd talk a little and then he would go back to Rose. He hadn't explained that the TARDIS could travel in time as well as space. Perhaps that would be enough to persuade her to come with him.

He couldn't change what had happened. Not the war or what he had lost, but he could move on with his life. New companion, new adventures, and maybe someday the holes in his hearts would start to heal.


End file.
